Tales of the goings on at Hollyford Pottery, near the tiny village of Stockleigh English in Devon, England

Wednesday, 4 November 2009

Back

Hello again.

Well we're back after a week away in Suffolk with my parents, where we had the best of times.

It was fantastic weather considering the time of year and we spent quite a bit of time on the sandy beaches which are beautiful along that part of the coast.

The terrain is very flat and in places, visible over a number of miles, there are networks of these wonderful old windmill pumps that were used to reclaim and irrigate the land. Some of them have fallen into disrepair, others have been converted into accommodation and some, like this one have been restored.

Our friends Jon and Jo live nearby so we were able to spend some fun time with them - here we are on a trip along the river in a little boat. What a great way to spend a day, cruising slowly along, mooring at a pub for a drink, then returning to the boatyard, taking in the scenery and wildlife - stunning turquoise kingfishers and a marsh harrier hunting for prey.

The boys loved it because they got to steer.

I could happily wile away a lot of hours on a little boat like that, travelling at pedestrian speed.

We got to hang out with Abba and Dame Edna Everage....

and the King of Pop....

and Mr Bean and Samantha Fox amongst other 'A listers' - (at least that's who I think they were supposed to be, perhaps the lights had made the wax melt a little?)

And so back to work this week, finishing off orders and making bowls. I have been rebuilding the inside of the workshop recently and it was good to come back to the new system - I just need to fill it full of new pots now as the shelves are bare. Late night working tonight with Marky Mark.

I have a fantastic new laptop now which is going to make blogging a lot easier once I've caught up with the huge backlog of email that I amassed when my old computer broke down.